The Dalton Gang and Their Family Ties The Preservation of an Outlaw Hideout In the southern part of Meade, Kansas, four blocks south of high- way 54, still stands the two-room house that was first occu pied by Mr. and Mrs. J.N. Whipple. Eva Dalton, sister of the infa mous out- laws, married J.N. Whipple Octo ber 15, 1887, at which time they moved into the newly constructed house Whipple had built for his bride. The house was on the out skirts of town in those days; the landscape dropped sharply from the house to a streambed to the south where water occa sion ally flowed into Crooked Creek to the east. A sharp bluff to the south of the streambed formed a canyon of sorts, later dubbed, “Gallop Away Canyon.” Taking advan tage of the landscape, Whipple built his house half un derground with one exposed wall and a door lead ing from the basement to the south. Their barn also was half sheltered by the earth in the hill below. Eva Dal ton came to Meade shortly af ter the town was es tab - lished in 1885. She was engaged in a milli nery business with Flor - 4 The Hideout ence Dorland, who later married R.A. Harper, an early-day Meade County rancher. Whipple oper ated a mer cantile store on the northwest corner of the square. Fairly success ful as a business man, he was reported to have been a good poker player, often holding games at the Whipple home. The Dal ton broth ers were re port edly seen sev eral times in Meade be fore a price was set on their heads, but their sis ter was never heard to men tion their names af ter they be came famous. The Whipples left Meade by early 1892, and their property was sold un der foreclo sure. Soon af ter, the H.G. Marshall family moved into the house. The new occu pants discov ered a tunnel from the house to the barn. Inside the house the mouth of the tunnel was hid- den by a small closet beneath the stairway leading to the two-room basement of the place. The tun nel was constructed by plac ing beams of wood across a deep rain wash which were then covered with earth. It was barely large enough for a man to walk through in a stooped posi tion. From the house the tunnel led into a small feed room in the barn, which hid the tunnel entrance. One of the Marshall daughters, Mrs. Roy Talbott, of ten told the story that several times horse back riders came up the canyon to the barn; placed their hoses in the barn and came on into the house through the tunnel. When the sur prised riders learned that another family occu pied the house, other than the Whipples, they im me di - ately fled back through the tun nel, mounted their horses and galloped away. Legend has it that many of the old-timers of Meade were very friendly with the Dalton Gang and thus the gang never raided the Meade banks or commit ted any overt acts in this vicin ity. Old tim ers were al ways tight lipped about the no to ri ous brothers. In 1934, the Wayne Set tle family was living in the house. At that time an old man came through Meade from Ohio on 5 Eva & John Looking into a person's past a hun dred years later is quite an un- EVA der tak ing, as this ed i tor dis cov ered while trying to recon struct events in the lives of Eva Dalton and J.N. & Whipple as they took place in Meade, Kan sas, in the years of JOHN 1885 through 1892. I have been through all the local news papers of the day (there were by Nancy Ohnick three of them in Meade Cen ter at the time), through many records in the Reg is ter of Deeds’ Of fice and the Trea surer’s Of fice in the Meade County Court House, as well as all the history books I could find. The follow ing is my conclu - sion supported by all the above. It seems that J.N. Whipple and R.A. Harper had been friends for a long time. His tory tells us that Mr. Harper came to Meade County as early as 1884, when he came through on a cattle drive from Texas and decided to home stead here. I have no background on Mr. Whipple, but his ads for Whipple’s Headquar - ters, “The Buffalo Store,” start show ing up in the lo cal papers when they began in 1885. Some think he was the first mer chant in Meade Cen ter (as Meade was called in the early days). One local 19 The Dalton Gang and Their Family Ties news paper says he was for merly of Wellington, Kan sas. I mention them both because their lives seem to be inter twined through- out my story. They married best friends and seemed to re main close through the years I traced them. John Whipple was a merchant. He had a mercan tile store on the north- west cor ner of the square in Meade. From his ads we see he sold fancy gro ceries, fine clothing, boots, shoes and gents furnish ings, wholesale and re tail. It was named the “Buf falo Store” and a sign was displayed in the front of his building with a picture of a buffalo. A bache lor in his mid-thir ties, John Whipple was a well-re spected busi ness man. He made the local “City News” any time he went away on busi ness, had a mishap, or was taken ill. I first find John in this col- umn when he served on the refresh - ment com mit tee for the grand opening of the New Opera House. One ar ti cle rec om mended him as good mate rial for City Coun cil in an up coming election. He must have been friends with the news paper edi - tors as they referred to him as “Johnny Whipple” and “Whip” on several occasions. We don’t know when Eva Dalton and her friend Florence Dorland came to town. They were said to have come from Chetopa, Kan sas, and that 20 The Dalton Family The Dalton Family by Nancy Samuelson A lot has been written about the Dalton Gang, and much of what has been written is nonsense or pure fiction. Early writ ers invented “facts” and these “facts” have been cop ied and re peated by later writ ers. Some writ ers are still in vent ing new sto ries about the Dal - ton Gang family. Much of the liter a ture in books and Western mag- Nancy B. Samuelson, Lt. Col. USAF. Ret. Nancy Samuelson was born No vem ber 12, 1940, in Dent Co. Mis souri. She is the daugh ter of Ray mond and Rosa Dal ton McDonough. She has a Bach e lor of Arts de gree from Har ris Teacher’s College, St. Louis, Mis souri and a Mas ter of Busi ness Ad min is tra tion from Syr a cuse Uni ver sity. Nancy served in the United States Air Force from 1964-1984. She served in a va ri ety of man age ment and com mand po sitions in the lo gis tics ca reer fields for about fif teen years; then as an As sistant Pro fes sor of Aerospace Studies in the Air Force ROTC (Re serve Of fi cer Train ing Corps) pro gram at the Uni ver sity of Con nect i cut. She is also the grad uate of a num ber of pro fes - sional mil i tary schools. Mil i tary awards and dec o ra tions in clude the Bronze Star, the Mer i to ri ous Ser vice Medal and Out stand ing Sup ply Of fi cer of the Year. Over seas tours of duty were in Eng land and Thai land. Nancy is mar ried to Dr. Reid R. Samuelson (PhD Elec tri cal En gi neer ing) also a retired Air Force Lt. Col. The Samuelsons live in a 200 year old house in ru ral Con nect i cut. Since re tire ment, Nancy keeps busy with re search, writ ing and gar den ing ac tivi ties. Research and writing projects focus primar ily on women in the mil- i tary, west ern his tory and ge ne al ogy. Her ar ti cles and book re views had ap - peared in Air Uni ver sity Re view, Armed Forces and Soci ety, Mi nerva, Quar terly Re port On Women And The Mili tary, The Herb Quar terly and in a num ber of ge ne a log i cal pub li ca tions. Her in ter est in the Dalton Gang be gan when she started re search ing her own Dal ton family line. Both fami lies came from the same general area of Vir- ginia, but so far no com mon an ces tor has been found. Nancy Samuelson has pub lished a book, The Dal ton Gang Story, that con - tains a much more in-depth look at the Dal ton fam ily as well as cop ies of all the mate ri als she used to docu ment the facts she presented here. It is rec om- mended read ing for Dal ton fam ily mem bers who want ge ne a log i cal in for ma - tion.